The disclosure relates generally to the treatment of turbomachine components, and more specifically to surface machining tools, methods of treating components (e.g., turbomachine components) to provide increased friction when contacting axially adjacent components, and/or exhibit greater compressive stress.
Post-deployment treatment of components, such as repair, improvement, refurbishment, etc. (collectively identified herein as “treatment” or “treatments”), can improve the lifespan and quality of a larger turbomachine assembly without requiring the manufacture of a new, complete assembly and/or individual components thereof. Several components of a turbomachine, such as rotatable wheels adapted to receive blades therein, can engage other components via direct mechanical contact during manufacture and/or operation. Frictional contact between the components can help to maintain a desired mechanical relationship between two or more components, e.g., axially adjacent rotor-mounted wheels of a turbomachine assembly.
In a conventional treatment process for a component, a turbomachine servicer can remove the wheel of a turbomachine from its corresponding rotor to apply wet grit blasting to one or more contact surfaces of the wheel. Processes such as wet grit blasting can clean these contact surfaces in addition to altering some of their mechanical properties. Wet grit blasting, however, typically necessitates installing the turbomachine wheel in a dedicated assembly, e.g., a blast booth, thereby increasing the total number of processes and equipment used in a treatment. In addition, wet grit blasting conventionally causes a treated surface to exhibit a greater surface roughness along with an at least partially decreased specific surface area, e.g., caused by removal of material from the surface during the blasting process.